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IW: Venus pulls off Petra stunner in 2nd round

Down but never out, Venus Williams scored a big win from a big deficit at the BNP Paribas Open on Saturday. The seven-time major champion rallied from a set and a double break down to stun No.3 seed and Australian Open runner-up Petra Kvitova, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4. Trailing 6-4, 3-0 in the match, Williams forced what might be the most improbable final set of the pair’s head-to-head to date, as the two Grand Slam champions have now played three sets in all seven of their career meetings.

After winning seven of the last nine games of the second set to draw level, the seven-time major champion faced another deficit in the third set, and won the last three games, again from a break down, of the match to seal a spot in the third round opposite compatriot Christina McHale.

Despite an off day from one of her biggest weapons – the American didn’t hit an ace over the course of nearly two-and-a-half hours, and lost serve four times – it was her consistency in protracted rallies which helped her pull off the comeback.

“The match we played was definitely worthy of a final. It’s not ideal for her to see me in her part of the draw. I don’t think anybody wants that. So I’m sure for her it was just not ideal,” Williams said.

“Definitely being down in those last two sets, it’s definitely not easy to turn it around. That’s for sure. I like to also know that I have opportunities all the time and that I can create those. So even when it’s not looking great, I know that the match isn’t over yet.”

Kvitova racked up 10 aces, but also 10 double faults, and despite more than doubling Williams’ total of winners (38 to 15), she also more than doubled her total of unforced errors (56 to 25).

“It was such a weird match, to be honest. We started, I think, pretty nervous, both. I took the first set. Suddenly I was leading in the second, but somehow I just gave her a chance again to be back in the match, and she took it,” Kvitova said in defeat.

“Suddenly, she just started to play better, I started to play worse, and that’s why that happen to the third set, which I didn’t break up, but I don’t know. I was so frustrated with myself from the half of the second set to the end, which shouldn’t happen to me.

“It’s always tough to play Venus, for sure. We always play three-setters, and suddenly, we have been there again and playing until the end, and in the end of the match, she definitely played better than me.”

WTATennis.com

Photos

Australian Open

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic & Irena-Camelia Begu of Romania at the net after their second-round match at the 2019 Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament

Petra Kvitova Fans in action during her second-round match at the 2019 Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic in action during her second-round match at the 2019 Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic in action during her first-round match at the 2019 Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic in action during her first-round match at the 2019 Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic with agent Marijn Bal on the red carpet of the Crown IMG Tennis Party ahead of the 2019 Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic on the red carpet of the Crown IMG Tennis Party ahead of the 2019 Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic on the red carpet of the Crown IMG Tennis Party ahead of the 2019 Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament

Tag Heuer

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic & Irena-Camelia Begu of Romania at the net after their second-round match at the 2019 Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament

Petra Kvitova Fans in action during her second-round match at the 2019 Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic in action during her second-round match at the 2019 Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic in action during her first-round match at the 2019 Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic in action during her first-round match at the 2019 Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic with agent Marijn Bal on the red carpet of the Crown IMG Tennis Party ahead of the 2019 Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic on the red carpet of the Crown IMG Tennis Party ahead of the 2019 Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic on the red carpet of the Crown IMG Tennis Party ahead of the 2019 Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament

US OPEN 2018

Getty Images North America

Getty Images North America

Getty Images North America

Getty Images North America

Getty Images North America

Getty Images North America

Getty Images North America

BIO

Petra was born to Jiří Kvita and Pavla Kvitová in Bilovec, a small town in the east of the Czech Republic. Her family spent a lot of time playing tennis at the local club and Petra started on her tennis journey by picking up balls for her brothers, Libor and Jiří, at 3 years old.

Petra’s father, a self-taught tennis player, became her coach growing up and used to show Petra videos of Martina Navratilova playing at Wimbledon, which she would watch with fascination.

I have so much respect for Martina, I watched her on television when I was a child, and that’s where I learnt about Wimbledon and playing on grass. It is nice to know that I have her support and it was special to see her on Centre Court when I won the title.

Growing up in Fulnek where there was only a short window for outdoor sports because of harsh winter weather, Petra spent a lot of time training on fast indoor surfaces, where she learned to play fast and hit flat. This had a huge impact on how Petra honed her game and developed the all-out attacking style for which she is now renowned.

It was not until Petra won the junior tournament of Pardubice, a prestigious event in the Czech Republic, that her family decided it was time for her to start pursuing a professional career. In 2006, Petra moved to the famous Prostejov Tennis Club, away from home and family. It was not an easy transition for a 16-year-old girl, but Petra adapted quickly and started to show rapid progress.

In 2007, Petra won four ITF singles titles and rose from No.773 to No.157 in the world. In 2008, Petra achieved direct entry into her first ever Grand Slam event at Roland Garros. She reached the last 16 and finished the year ranked No.44 in the world. This was also the year she joined forces with her coach, David Kotyza.

2011 was a spectacular breakthrough year for Petra. She started off by cracking the top 10 in the world after winning her first clay-court tournament in Madrid. Two months later, she lifted the Venus Rosewater Dish at Wimbledon, marching through the draw and stunning Maria Sharapova in the final. Her life was to change forever…

“The Wimbledon final is a very happy memory for me. I was so focused on match point that when I won it felt like a dream. It was strange, I had a dream about winning Wimbledon during the French Open that year, and then a couple of weeks later it came true. I couldn’t believe it. It was definitely one of the happiest momentsof my life.”

Petra became the first player born in 1990s, male or female, to win a Grand Slam title. She finished the 2011 season winning the prestigious season-ending WTA Championships in Istanbul and climbed to No.2 in the world. To cap off a dream year, which included 6 titles in total, she proudly led the Czech team to Fed Cup victory for the first time since 1988.

Petra had a solid 2012 season despite injury and illness, resulting in two Grand Slam semifinals at the Australian Open and Roland Garros, and she reached the quarterfinal at Wimbledon as defending champion, losing out to eventual champion Serena Williams. She was also crowned the Emirates US Open Series champion, with two titles at Montreal and New Haven. She led her country to a second successive Fed Cup triumph in the same year that the Czech Republic also pulled off victory in the Davis Cup.

2012 was a wonderful year for Czech tennis. Winning the Fed Cup and Davis Cup at home was unbelievable. The support we received from the home crowd was amazing and it was special to see what tennis means to our country. I hope we can keep growing tennis as a sport to compete with football and ice hockey and I hope we can inspire children to want to play tennis.

Getting To Know

Petra received two pieces of advice from Martina Navratilova before the 2011 Wimbledon final: don’t be too happy that you are in the final; don’t think of it as the Wimbledon final but treat it as a normal match

Petra’s favorite surfaces is grass, but she also loves to play indoors

The most important person in Petra’s career is her father, Jiří, who introduced her to tennis and honed her talent at a young age

Petra's Team

Coach: Jiri Vanek

Jiri Vanek is a former ATP player who reached a career-high singles ranking of No.74 in October 2000 and amassed 11 titles on the Challenger circuit. After retiring in 2011, Vanek coached Czech No.1 Karolina Pliskova to five WTA titles and her first Grand Slam final in 2016. He is married to Marketa Kochta, also a former pro player, and has two sons, Jiri Giorgio (13) and Tom Nicolas (9).

PR manager: Katie Spellman

Working together since 2012. Katie is from England but lives in Toronto, Canada. Katie spent the first seven years of her career as a sports journalist on the Sunday Mirror and The Times before joining the communications team at the WTA, where she worked closely with Petra and other top WTA players as part of the communications team. Katie set up her own PR consultancy business in 2012 with Petra as her first client.

Agent/Manager: Marijn Bal

Marijn Bal has been Petra’s manager at IMG since August 2014 and represents Petra globally. A former collegiate tennis player, Marijn is originally from The Netherlands, and currently works out of the IMG office in Bradenton, Florida, where he has been based since 2008 and takes care of Petra’s day-to-day business related matters.

Fitness trainer: David Vydra

Petra has been working with David, who is from Prague, since June 2015. Before working with Petra, David spent 7 years working with Tomas Berdych and several months working with Lukas Rosol.

Blog

Fighting jet lag and finding motivation at WTA Finals

I arrived in Singapore on Tuesday night and I’m hoping the jet lag will be gone by Monday when I step on court for my first match at this year’s WTA Finals.

I’ve spent the last two months chasing the points I needed to qualify as one of the top eight players in the world, travelling from New York to Europe to China and now Singapore, and it feels great to have finally made it.

I’m not feeling too bad and I certainly hope to do better than last year, when I lost two of my three round-robin matches. Reaching the Finals is one of my goals every year and I know what it feels like to end the season on a high after winning on my debut in 2011.

There is not much time to rest when you arrive at the season finale, with all sorts of commitments off court as well as the need to practise, but fortunately I’m the sort of person who likes like to keep busy. Let’s just hope that the jet lag wears off after three or four days!

‘Playing without motivation is tough’

I’m especially happy to be here playing the WTA Finals after taking the most time off during a season that I think I ever have.

I took a month out earlier in the year, something I never really did before, so it was kind of a new experience but showed me that I can still come back, play well and stay in the top five. That’s great.

Winning three Premier titles along the way was amazing, as well as beating Serena Williams in Madrid, although of course I wanted to have some better results in the Grand Slams.

But I think you can always take something good from the bad things, so that’s what I’m trying to do, and I still have my motivation. I’m really happy to be here competing as one of the top eight.

This already feels like it has been a special season, but with the Fed Cup final against Russia to follow Singapore it could be a really great end to the year.

It won’t quite match up to Serena’s season, even though she won’t be playing in Singapore. I think she was very disappointed when she lost at the US Open, just two wins from completing the calendar Grand Slam, and it was then tough to find the motivation to play the end of the season.

Playing just because she has to is not really her way of playing. Playing without motivation is tough even for her, but I think what she did this year is great.

‘I’m not a fan of airplane food’

I have been on some very long flights over the last two months, heading back from the US Open to Europe, then returning from China for a break in the Czech Republic before coming here to Singapore.

It can be tricky to cope with this kind of schedule, which means many, many hours in the air, but I’m lucky that I have no problem sleeping on a plane!

When you fly as much as I do, you get into a pretty familiar routine. I don’t do any exercises when flying but use compression socks, and spend as much time as possible lying down. I try not to eat much – I’m not a fan of airplane food, everything is just so weird.

I always take my book, my MP3, my phone and my computer. I like to watch movies – I just saw the documentary about Amy Winehouse, which was very good and emotional.

The other thing I always try to travel with by my side is my racquet bag. It’s kind of big and sometimes I have a bit of trouble with that, but usually I can persuade them to let it on!

‘I hit once a day and really give everything’

Unfortunately I lost early in Beijing and then couldn’t go to Moscow as planned, but it did give me a few extra days off to rest and recover, and then I had a really good practice in the Czech Republic.

I think maybe Aga Radwanska, Maria Sharapova and Simona Halep arrived in Singapore before me. With only eight singles players at the tournament sometimes it can be more difficult to arrange practice but we are lucky with the players here this year and before the draw is made it’s a little bit easier.

We have the coaches to hit with as well but before the matches I think it’s just time to play some points and get the final touches from the coaches.

There is always a lot of work going on behind the scenes at a tournament and that’s even more true at the WTA Finals, where we have many activities during the day and you really have to set everything up.

It is for sure a big part of the coach’s job to make sure the tennis does not get neglected. I don’t think you can do much great practice here so we are trying to hit once a day and really give everything to the session, then we have the other commitments.

I’m happy how we’ve arranged everything and even though it’s still been a really long season for me, I feel OK now and ready for a challenging few weeks.